First watched : Uncertain
I'm going to assume that I wasn't watching any teatime telly yet as the majority of the programmes that week are completely unfamiliar. Instead we'll moved straight on to the next WWM feature on Tuesday 8th.
I've only just learned that Trumpton was the second part of a sequential trilogy. I've always related it to Camberwick Green and Chigley but the repeat schedule disguised the fact that their productions didn't overlap. The animators insisted on filming these series in colour as well despite the fact BBC1 couldn't yet broadcast in that mode which meant that they had a longer shelf life than many of their contemporaries
Don't worry Trumpton fans; I'm not going to diss it. I liked Trumpton despite , perhaps because of, its predictable formula. The town of Trumpton also didn't seem too far removed from Littleborough ( not yet yoked to Rochdale at this point ), the resemblance helped by our Harehill Park having a near-identical bandstand. The predictability factor was very high; about a third of its running time was used up by identical footage. Every episode climaxed with some sort of crisis being resolved by calling out the fire brigade. the episode broadcast on 8.10.68 was called Mrs Lovelace And The Mayor's Hat ; I think you can guess how that panned out.
Trumpton ( and the wider series ) has been subject to some derision for presenting an unrealistic view of English communities and you do wonder if it influenced young Dave and his Big Society ideas.
As often related, puppetmaster Gordon Murray consigned all his puppets to the fire in the eighties - an ironic fate for Pugh Pugh, Barney McGrew and co. A sole soldier from Camberwick Green escaped the holocaust and is believed to be still in the possession of his daughter's friend having failed to attract the price she wanted at auction in 2003.
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